Morgan's Return (20 page)

Eastly pulled a face. "I suppose."

"You're worried?" Partridge asked.

Morgan leaned back in the chair, considered for a moment before she replied. "Let's just say, if my admiral feels uneasy, so do I. And he does."

Partridge and Eastly exchanged surprised glances. Ravindra suppressed a smile. It was the nicest thing she'd said all day.

Morgan increased the size of the 3-D proximity display, zooming in to exclude unwanted detail. The canyon appeared, a deep defile between two islands. Eastly throttled back the sub's engines. While the other men watched the screen, Ravindra watched Morgan's face. Her gaze was fixed on the data port and she had that strange, surreal expression he associated with her when she was in her 'machine' mode. He wondered what she could see, how she saw. Like the displays on the ship's navigation screens? Much, much more?

Cliffs towered on both sides. Both towered high above the water but that was only apparent from the charts. Eastly brought the ship along the starboard side, where Morgan had sensed the anomaly. Long strands of seaweed waved with the current. For a moment one caught on the sensor, obscuring the view until it tore away revealing rock surfaces covered in multi-colored growth. Small fish moved through the seaweed or peeped from caves, and larger creatures approached the sub's sensors, attracted by the strange visitor. The whole environment made Ravindra's gut churn. Too many shapes and shadows, too many places for enemies to hide.

"Stop."

Morgan's command made Ravindra jump.

"See that?" She pointed to a section of the wall on the display.

Partridge and Eastly joined him, staring at the screen.

"Look carefully. Something has fallen away, or been cut away, from that section of the cliff."

Yes, she might be right. Ravindra could just discern what could be gouges, now softened by sea life.

Partridge said what he'd been thinking. "So?"

Pretending to use the controls, she rotated the lower sensors, scanning the bottom at the base of the cliff. "There. And before you ask, I'll show you what I'm seeing." Her voice snapped with irritation.

She'd selected a shapeless mass of stone and displayed it in 3-D. Then she filled out the mass, smoothing lines, extrapolating features.

Partridge gasped. "It's a torso."

"Well picked. Let me find another one."

Ravindra could almost hear himself breathe, they were all so silent. Not even Morgan moved. Another stone appeared on the screen, a lump covered in weed and debris. Morgan modified the image, this time revealing two legs and a bag on a piece of base.

Eastly and Partridge both sighed, leaning toward the display as if mesmerized.

Morgan swiveled the chair around. "That's your statues. Something broke them off. My guess is they were deliberately removed. This part of the wall would have been above water thousands of years ago."

Partridge nodded. "Now you mention it, that makes sense. Ushas's founders tended to destroy anything that didn't fit their belief system. A pantheon of men wouldn't have fit."

She smiled. "Right. This is also the area where the data anomaly is strongest. So let's take a closer look at the scenery."

Ravindra sat down on the couch. The atmosphere in the sub had shifted. Partridge, sitting beside him, gripped his fingers on the edge of the couch, his muscles tensed. Eastly's eyes sparkled with excitement. And something else. Anger, Suspicion?

"Whoah! That's a big one!"

Ravindra jerked out of his assessment at the sound of Eastly's voice, just in time to catch a glimpse of something enormous passing the outside window screen. The sensors swiveled to follow the creature, receding in a swirl of wake.

"Is it dangerous?" Morgan asked. "Because there's another one out there." She jerked her head at the display where another creature rose out of the murk at the base of the cliff.

Ravindra's heart thundered. A huge head tapered down to a much narrower tail. Pectoral fins extended like short wings on an atmosphere-capable flying craft. The creature had looked like part of the rubble, its hide superbly camouflaged to match its surroundings in color and in texture.

"Shit. The other one's coming around the other side." Partridge's voice cracked with panic.

"They're usually safe enough, Derryn," Eastly said.

"You've said that before. Have you seen those teeth?" Partridge's finger, pointing at the screen, trembled.

The creature's mouth had opened. Gods. Triple rows of triangular fangs. And the things must be as long as this sub. The hull jolted. Ravindra staggered, reaching out for the back of Morgan's chair. Partridge stumbled to his knees.

"It's attacking," Partridge hissed as he struggled to his feet.

"Just a nudge." Eastly's hands gripped the console, his white knuckles at odds with the calmness of his words. "Damage report."

"
Minor external scratches
.
The cardoplasts are in all likelihood protecting a nest
."

"Brent, get us the hell out of here." Partridge had scrambled back to his seat on the bench, his eyes round with fear. "The other one's coming."

The second beast, the one in front, had lunged forward and made a threat display. Ravindra had seen similar behavior often enough on hunting trips. Now, the creature stayed in place, a hulking shape in the gloom.

"Get us out," Eastly said.

"
Aye, aye
."

"Hang on a minute." Morgan came out of her machine trance. "There's something behind that wall."

Eastly shook his head. "We'll never get near it. They'll destroy the sub."

Already, the ship was coming to a halt.

"Wait. Stop. Look at this." Morgan showed a piece of the canyon wall, all rocks and sparse weed. She followed barely visible shapes, drawing a line on the screen. "It's an arch. I'll bet a year's pay that's a sea gate like the one you have at your house. I just need a few minutes to see if I can trigger the mechanism."

The sub jolted. Morgan lurched, barely saving herself. This time an alarm started, strident ululation in time with a flashing red light on the console. "
A minor leak
," the IS intoned. "
Dealing…
"

Morgan focused on the data port.

"Why aren't we moving, Brent? Get us the fuck out of here," Partridge screeched.

Eastly thumped the panel with a clenched fist, the lines in his face taut with tension. "I'm trying. It's not responding. Ship!"

Ravindra forced himself to breathe deeply. In… out. The red light stopped flashing and the alarm ceased. Morgan had taken over, he was sure of it. He hoped she wasn't making a huge mistake. Finding out where his ancestors came from was one thing, but he had no wish to join them in oblivion. "Morgan?"

"Nearly, Ashkar. It's old." She didn't look at him.

The ship shuddered. Metal screeched.

"
Sealing bulk heads to front compartments
."

"We've sprung a fucking leak. Brent," howled Partridge.

"Ah." Morgan leaned back.

A cloud of silt and particles erupted into the dark water. Ravindra heaved a sigh of relief. The sea gate was lifting, inching up into the mountain. The movement must have alarmed the cardoplasts. The one guarding the nest backed away, displaying three rows of teeth.

The sea gate stopped.

"Fuck." Morgan frowned. "The bloody thing is stuck. I could use a torpedo or a laser canon about now."

"We're not going to need it. The cardoplast will sink us first." Partridge pointed at the rear-facing screen, where the huge beast's mouth filled the display.

Chapter 17  

P
ure terror raced up Morgan's spine. As if in slow motion, the creature came on, its jaws wide. She could have counted every triangular tooth in the cardoplast's mouth. She put on power, and at the same time, drove hard to starboard. The gaping maw disappeared.

"It's gone over the top," Partridge said, relief dripping from every word.

A blast of water smashed the sub sideways. Morgan rode the systems, checking for leaks and stabilizing, while dragging in data from the screens. The beast had hit the wall, where the half-open sea gate hung. Debris drifted in the water, but the gate was rising again. The cardoplast had retreated, ready for a second run. Was the gate high enough? She hoped so. She swung the sub around, ignoring complaints from the passengers and the groans of the hull. The beast struck again. The water swirled, full of silt and detritus that rattled like a storm on a metal roof. As the creature backed off, Morgan shot the sub through the gap, then instructed the gate to drop.

The sub was going too fast. If she couldn't stop it quickly, they'd hit something. She engaged full reverse thrust. The engines roared, slammed from one motion to another. Ravindra looked positively green, his hands clenched into fists, his lips a line. Partridge's face was pale, his eyes round.

They were rising, following a sloping passage, which gave her time to slow down but even so the end approached, a dark mass dead ahead.
I can't do any more. Let's hope it's enough
. A rolling boom filled the compartment. The ship slewed sideways, then rocked and swayed.

"
We have minor damage to the bow and the leading sensor has been destroyed
," the IS said. "
All compartments are watertight
."

Morgan wasn't the only one who sighed with relief. The collision was less than she'd feared.

"What happened out there?" Eastly asked.

"If I were to guess, I would suggest the beast thought the opening door was a threat to its young," Ravindra said.

"Makes sense." Partridge sucked in deep breaths. "Hopefully, it thinks it's won and will go away."

"Where are we?" Partridge asked.

"We're still underwater," Morgan said. "Let's hope this is like your cavern, and not like an airlock on a spaceship." At least there was a chance the systems were operational; otherwise the sea gate wouldn't have raised at all.

"I want to know who you are." Eastly growled the words, standing in front of her with his hands on his hips. "You seem to know an awful lot about this ship, about this place. How? Why?"

Ravindra closed the space between them in a stride. Eastly blinked and took a half pace back. "It's a legitimate question. She's done things with this sub I didn't know you could do and I've done the training course."

Oh, she could do without this crap. "I'm a particularly skilled engineer. It's just another system, just another vehicle."

"Sure. And what about that sea gate? How did you find that?" He glared at her. "And more to the point, how did you get it open?"

Morgan sighed. "It was designed to open, just like your sea gate at your house. The sensors found the data ports and I sent a succession of impulses, looking for the right sequence. As for knowing the place was there—I explained that. The data looked to me as if something was being hidden, so I deliberately went looking for a data port."

"That lasted millennia?"

"Does that surprise you?" Ravindra spoke softly. "It shouldn't. Not so very long ago, we encountered information systems that had lasted for thousands of years. One of them led us here." He meant the secret room in the archaeological dig on Krystor, where they'd found images of the people who'd built the long-ruined manor.

Eastly still regarded her through narrowed eyes. Not convinced.

"In the right environment, information systems can last for ages," she said.

"We're underwater."

"Sure. But if this place is like an airlock on a spaceship, then the controls are inside, protected from the elements."

Partridge put a hand on Eastly's arm. "Let it go, Brent. We wouldn't be here without them and I want to know what's here. Don't you?"

Eastly rubbed his fist over his mouth. "Yes. All right." He sagged, the tension draining away. "What now?"

"Now I'll have to go out and look around," Morgan said. "The sensors haven't detected anything out there, but there has to be some way to seal up and get the water out. Or something. Do you have diving equipment? Oxygen extractors and masks?"

"We have. Go and fetch the suits, Brent." Partridge made the words an instruction.

Eastly disappeared through the rear hatch which led to the store rooms and the engine compartment. He returned in moments, his arms laden with dangling silver suits and a box from which bright yellow fins protruded. He tossed the fins on the floor and lifted out helmets with transparent face plates and a thick ridge around the back of the neck.

"That's the re-breather," he said. "Have you used these before?"

"No," Morgan said. "Not these. I did some diving in my youth and the equipment's not so different from a space suit."

Eastly grunted. "Space is a vacuum. Here the pressure is huge."

"How many suits?" Ravindra asked.

"We have six, enough so that if the sub is damaged, we at least have one means of escape," Eastly said.